1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rake implement, for sifting/combing leaves/debris from a grassy lawn, which also has the capability for leaf/debris pile pickup for transport and dumping.
2. Prior Art
Attempts have been made in the past to provide leaf rakes or lawn combing devices that will have low frictional drag (as used in the raking process) and can store a growing quantity of leaves as they are being raked from a lawn. In addition, the picking up of leaves, after they have been gathered into small piles from raking, has been done by using a shovel, pitchfork, a second leaf rake to entrap the leaf pile between the two rakes, or use of the hand to push the leaf pile against the inside surface of the leaf rake's rack assembly to trap the leaf pile for lifting. Other means, such as raking a quantity of leaves onto a large surface cloth sprawled on the ground to allow them to be bundled together to be dragged away, or pushing a pile with a shovel, or other means such as hand pressing them into a trash can laid over on its side.
Relevant prior art devices used for raking leaves are described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,137,608 issued on Nov. 22, 1938 to W. K. Flavin and U.S. Pat. No. 3,688,483 entitled "Multi-Purpose Household Garden and Yard Hand Tool," issued to Dave H. Hamilton. This latter patented device has a bag attached to the rake which the operator manipulates to scoop up a pile of leaves.
Known leaf rakes are usually comprised of a rake assembly having tines that extend outward from a triangularly shaped plate-like frame at one end, and mounting means for its attached handle at the other end. Leaf rakes are commonly used to gather and remove fallen leaves from a grassy lawn without damaging the lawn surface or the grass growing therein. Many popular present-day leaf rakes are made of plastic (reinforced with metal) having multiple tines (which are long narrow contoured rectangular strips that extend outward from a triangularly shaped base). Rakes with designs such as this, tend to rub leaves off the grass and considerable effort (energy) must be exerted to separate leaves from the grass matt in applying a downward/pulling force. The greater the downward pulling force exerted in raking, the greater the frictional resistance to pulling the rake. An increase in frictional resistance, requires more work (Force X Displacement) to be exerted/expended in the raking process.
Still other types of leaf rakes utilize tines of contoured wire that are operated in raking just as the aforementioned rake types. There is a variety of hand operated rake types on the commercial market, they all are operated in a manner similar to that described above. They differ mostly in their composition materials. Leaf rake types now in use for separating leaves from lawn grass do the job, while requiring the exertion of considerable effort (work, energy), including bending over by the operator to grasp and pick up the leaf pile, or pulling along a growing pile of gathered leaves for eventual pickup and disposal.
Conventional garden rakes, which usually have short stiff metal blunt pointed tines, cannot be used successfully in raking leaves from lawn grass, as the tines tend to dig into the turf (which inhibits smooth raking) and damage it. However, ordinary rakes (lawn or leaf) do not have the physical structure for being used to grasp and pick up a pile of leaves to transport it.
None of the aforesaid prior art and no other means, known to this applicant, attempts to utilize outrider skis in combination with an adjustable (up and down) tine rack that can enable the rake operator to selectively alter and control the depth of penetration of the rake's tines into the grass. Also, no other hand operated lawn rake device utilizes an attached second rack, a prong rack, for grasping a leaf/debris pile for lifting/transporting. No other leaf rake offers an adjustable tine rack that is fitted with contoured circular rod tines, contoured flat tines or alternating combination of flat and rod tines that can provide regular raking capability and/or the combing capability. Still another embodiment of the lawn comb utilizes a jointed spring-loaded prong rack that bends from the action of its V-shaped coil springs to facilitate the encircling and grasping of a leaf/debris pile.